Curious: Anyone have recommendations for a book geared towards Western Christians (Anglicans, Lutherans, Romans) that faithfully explains the nuances of Eastern Orthodox theology?

@marmanold Many books explaining Orthodoxy seem tacitly aimed at "lower" Protestant traditions. An exception is Thinking Orthodox, which did a better job than I thought possible of putting in words the mindset I acquired over 25 years as Parish Cantor. Pore over the book blurbs at Amazon to see if it sounds like what you'd want.

@ReaderJohn Daniel Clendenin's book is possibly one of those. but that is one aimed at evangelical audiences explaining eastern orthodoxy without the aim of converting them.

@marmanold Metropolitan Kallistos' (writing as Timothy Ware)'s The Orthodox Church and The Orthodox Way are both written as presentations of Orthodoxy to the non-Orthodox.

@marmanold I enjoyed reading Andrew Louth’s “Introducing Eastern Orthodox Theology”

@jonah I read Clendenin when I was either an inquirer or a recent convert. At least at the time, I thought he had gotten his details right.

Inasmuch as mindset/phronema, not theological propositions, is the heart of Orthodoxy, it might be interesting to re-read him now and see whether he captured that.

And yes, I think he was writing to Evangelicals.

@JohnBrady I would agree with that recommendation; I just don't recall Ware as distinctly as Constantinou.

@ReaderJohn Orthodox worship is so central to what Orthodoxy is all about that I'd probably encourage the curious to attend the Divine Liturgy for a month before they even looked at a theological/apologetic work. I'd go a little further and say that the whole content of the faith is built into the full cycle of services without need for any theological books.

@JohnBrady I agree — but doing things in the wrong order has worked out just fine for at least one convert (me) who wasn't at liberty to go Liturgize with the Orthodox on Sunday Morning.

(Enjoyed your apt quip that were it not for heretics, we'd have no theology.)

@ReaderJohn Related quip from I think Andrew Louth, about the paradox of apophatic theology: St Maximos recognized that, though God is beyond human understanding, he is not beyond human misunderstanding.

@marmanold Perhaps you can find something interesting in the writings by Alexander_Schmemann?